Rutherford’s entire political future rests on him being able to successfully rebut the allegations of a now former employee who contends the treasurer sexually harassed him and forced him to do political work on state time.

While Rutherford was forceful and assured in his strenuous denials, much more so than in his unusual pre-emptive strike 10 days earlier, I’m afraid he will continue to find that such accusations are more easily made than laid to rest. […]

Before his campaign was sidetracked by Michalowski’s allegations, Rutherford was telling reporters he was in the best position to challenge Rauner’s frontrunner status, an argument he repeated Monday.

There is little that the rest of us can do right now other than step back, draw deep breaths, and see where the evidence leads us. That’s not so hard:

Illinois voters are steely veterans of political scandals, public corruption and lurid allegations variously true and false. Republican primary voters have some time to wait for more information before deciding whether they’ll nominate Rutherford for governor.

Is [Rutherford’s response] enough to put Mr. Rutherford back on the political high ground, the innocent guy who fought back? Probably not — especially if the charges that he coerced aides to perform political chores turn out to have merit. But I can’t say that for sure.

Nor is it likely that either of the other two Republicans in the race, state Sens. Kirk Dillard and Bill Brady, will gain from the carnage, though a Rutherford exit or effective exit could allow Mr. Brady, who lives in Bloomington, to consolidate the downstate vote. Both are too far back and have too little money to fight with to make up much ground, I suspect. Unless, that is, Mr. Rutherford can roll out more proof that Mr. Rauner is behind it all.

I feel bad for Rutherford. I thought he would have had a shot once the anti-Rauner groups started running their commercials. Let them beat up Rauner and run positive ads about yourself. Probably the only one with enough money to do that. But now he’s toasty looking. But if his explanations hold up and Rauner is tagged with being behind this it will be too late for him but more meat for the Quinn camp.

Burnt. Even if Rutherford is innocent, and there is a good chance he is, it’s too late in the game to recover.

This is a real bummer if Rutherford is innocent. Dropping out makes him look guilty, stay in the race and it’s depressing watching himself fall in the polls. Completely messed up what was shaping up to be an interesting race.

It was an uphill climb to begin with and now with this schlep’s complaint - Rutherford cannot challenge Rauner’s purchase of the nomination.

The damage is even worse for the GOP. At a time when even conservatives like I have no problem with alternative lifestyles, the sandbagging of a decent public official over these kinds of rumors will show the public that GOP primary voters are mostly whack-jobs and rubes who can’t focus beyond the possibility that an elected official might prefer panky-hanky over hanky-panky.

Dan Rutherford was a folksy, downstate, middle of the road, nice guy 10 days ago. He works hard and has been focused on this campaign for 3-4 years. He raised a modest but respectable amount of money and was holding his own on the trail.

But I don’t think anybody saw him having a strong chance at victory 11 days ago. Since then, the bottom has fallen out and every penny in his campagin account should either be saved or spent to redeem his reputation. He probably wasn’t going to win before this, and now he certainly cannot win.

Maybe if he can find a future Mrs. Rutherford and announce his engagement before early voting starts…nah. Still wouldn’t win.

Even if he can clear up the allegations before the primary, the lingering doubt cast…the thought that something else might come out…will make it difficult for a pragmatic Republican to cast a vote for him. That said, who knows what chinks will show in the armor of each of his opponents? Toasty looking, but still early.

I don’t suspect Rauner, if so it would be dumber than Richard Nixon orchestrating Water Gate, when he was sure to win the election. I have seen dumb things in poetics, though, such as the goof ball that took responsibility for fathering John Edwards’ love child.

Generally, where there is smoke there is fire. Rutherford could have remained Treasurer, even with the whispering campaign that surrounds him. He knew this story was out there and still ran for Governor. It reminds me of NY politics and men that run, when they know there is an explosive story cooking.

Voted “barely kneaded”. Maybe I got the analogy wrong, but I think there is much more on this to come. Some conspriracy theory stuff about who is responsible, sure. But more damaging will be the additional staff and former staff stepping up. Seems like the dough is a long way from being bread.

Toasty Looking
Short of Rutherford’s accuser coming forward and admitting it was all scripted by Rauner and nothing is true except for the fact that Rauner in one tape admitting that he gave Ronald Reagan Alzheimers and was on the grassy knoll, I don’t see Rutherford emerging from this.

Its time to move forward and salvage his career, and try to come back another day. It is making a joke of the GOP and distracting from the race. It is lousy that this is the way the game is played but he knew how life in politics is.

i voted toasty, but after thinking a bit more about it, should have gone with burnt toast.

this is what reporters and columnists are talking about, so it sucks up all the oxygen available to the three amigos. meanwhile, rauner keeps hammering or benefiting from: term limits, anti-career politician ads, and, his basic ad package.

rauner is doing a good job of playing out the clock. he owns the skies.

i am disappointed in the reporters and columnists and editorial boards for not putting rauner on the spot personally (not thru a spokesperson) to explain in meaningful detail ANYthing he would do. he should continue to skip all campaign forums for the time being. it is working.

Burnt toast ,this charge is terrible,and to be accused by a guy is really bad. All the gay bashers on the right will shed him like water off
a ducks behind.
Politics really sucks. It’s a wonder anyone wants
to run.

I agree with used2beGOP, they rumors was always there and neither of the other 3 had those rumors. Remember Jack Ryan? He has sex with his wife albeit unusual location and the GOP wanted him gone despite his $$ and they got Keyes. DR knew what could come out and…?

this close to the primary, it doesn’t matter what the truth is. in fact, if the truth is the exact opposite of the accusation, it will take a long time for it to reach the level of public knowledge that the accusations have.

this is a much easier prediction, though, with a rich self-funder running against rutherford…

Burnt. No amount of scraping will get the black off of this toast. He doesn’t have the time nor the money to salvage his campaign. The best he can do at this point is play spoiler by spending his money on Count hit pieces. He probably won’t so he can spend his money on himself - within the constraints of the law.

The campaign wasn’t on the upswing as this started. The bizarro presser got it rolling in the worst possible way. Their defenses to the suit are ok, but the underlying “this is Rauner” is unlikely to be proven in time and hurts in the meantime.

If you scrape the burnt off the toast of his campaign - all the way down to the part that isn’t burnt, all you find is air. Nothing, nada, nil. Those are his chances of being chosen in a primary only weeks away. There is NO chance of changing the trajectory of his primary campaign in such a short time. He may well be totally innocent of these charges. He could have a case for slander and libel - after the fact. But no way does that help him how.

I voted TOAST: in this 30 second attention gap world the visuals are ingrained in the low info voter.. Even if Circular Fire is correct, and the anti Romney campaign gets some legs in the next 3 weeks, I don’t think the Treasurer will be the one who benefits. It looks like only Brady has a shot, and I am not sure he can aim the gun.

Highly-manipulative people are well-known for telling others and those whom they manipulate that there’s no way that what they’re seeing or experiencing could have been orchestrated because “people just ain’t that ’smart.’”

I’ve been saying for years that both the power-mongering and dirty politics have gotten completely out of hand.

The big picture that I believe is being painted seems to be a positive one. But then I know also know that things are not always as they seem to be.

I voted burnt - validity of the accusations aside, the mere fact that there are accusations and the limited time frame to recover make it impossible. Besides, he wasn’t doing much with what he had anyway, even if he might’ve been the most viable alternative.

I’m still going with half baked. I think there’s a lot more to come out on this. And in my many years working for the state I’ve certainly seen much worse than these allegations and most certainly seen disgruntled employees go after someone for reasons other than “doing the right thing”.

He’s done. He can try to use this to damage Rauner, but unless he has direct evidence linking him to the scandal, it won’t help him much. I don’t know who this does help unless he steps out of the race.

Half Baked: Rutherford still has time to fight back if not guilty but not if he is guilty then it is over. Quinn’s challengers were run off and now Rauner is running off his competition. The result is the election nobody wants. How can that happen?

Burnt toast.
Prior to all this he was the best contender against Rauner.
Rauner has some teflon factor going, his daughter got into Peyton school by questionable methods, and did not attend one of his Charter schools. But that died down with the Rutherford accusations. Coincidence?

I just hope people give him a chance, as you know you can’t always believe what you hear and in this case right before the primary, come on people how dumb can we be? I want solid proof not just a lawsuit. Jeez

Burnt toast. The campaign had little chance of beating Rauner before this came out and basically no chance now.

What will be interesting is how the labor/schock money decides to play this. Do you continue trying to define Rauner this early or do you conserve money and wait until more people are paying attention during the general?

What once seemed far-fetched to many is now reality. Rauner is an extremely tough candidate with endless money who will be an extremely difficult opponent for Quinn. While right now it doesn’t appear that 2014 will look just like 2010 in turnout, it is heading that way. Quinn is in for a real battle.

Any allegations from others and DR will be deep-fried to a crackly Herman Cain crunch.

Short of that, the allegations seem politically motivated and make me want to vote for DR. The field is so fractured and so tortured, anyone could win it. The 12 page anti-Rauner piece is being delivered as we speak. And Mr. Rauner showing up to at the Republican party on the arms of Ed Rendell, Mr. Daley, Mr. Rahm…

Voted Burnt Toast because there is NO WAY Dan Rutherford is going to get the most votes out of the 4 candidates. Prior to January 31st, Rutherford was without a clear message as to why he was even running. No substance whatsoever. That introduction video where Dan interacted with blue collar workers. Their comment, we need more jobs in Illinois. Dan’s response…Yes, and as Governor, I’ll bring more manufacturing jobs to Illinois.

On TV, radio,press releases, blogs or in person, I don’t ever remember at anytime during this campaign hearing Dan saying HOW he was going to accomplish ANY of the goals he spoke about.

Before the scandal, it was very unlikely DR would be the GOP nominee. Now, whether the accusations are true or false, THERE IS NO WAY DR will be victorious in 5 weeks.

I think DR has one thing sewn up - second place. Not likely Dillard and Brady can gain any traction or funding out of this so DR can say he didn’t slip in his position. That and 2 buck will get him a cup of coffee.

If he were a Dem he could come out of the closet and say he couldn’t lead a double life anymore and, regardless of the consequences, he wanted to live out the rest of his life honestly. Its possible urban democrats would accept him. But, being a republican, he doesn’t have a chance especially with the strong influence of the tea party in the primary.

Breaks my heart, as I know all of the candidates save Rauner. Dan is a decent, hardworking, driven politician. He can be rough on those who drop the ball, but once equilibrium attained, he forgets and moves on. I am sorry to have seen this happen. I voted toasty looking for many of the reasons already stated.

Burnt Toast. He would have to have been a big front runner with lots of people unshakably devoted to him to survive this. As a person with a marginal shot beforehand, and as an up-to-now closeted gay man trying to win in a socially conservative electorate, no chance. There may be politically worse ways to come out of the closet than this, but one has to think hard to imagine them.

I’ve been saying for days now that as far as the Treasurer’s race for Governor goes, it’s done, completed, over with, finished. This devastating allegation and the resultant controversy is making his Campaign go “kaput.” He’s toast, (”burnt toast” if you prefer, as I obviously voted for), history, a goner. Have I made my input/opinion into/about this Question clear enough this time???

Rutherford’s 2014 Campaign for Governor is like that parrott in the old Monty Python sketch…

It’s not pining for the fjords, it’s passed on! This campaign is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet its maker! It’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed it to the perch, it’d be pushing up the daisies! Its metabolic processes are now history! It’s off the twig! It’s kicked the bucket, it’s shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-CAMPAIGN!

Burnt. It doesn’t matter if there is truth to the allegations, or if the timing is questionable, the problem is that there are several candidates to choose from. People who follow this a lot less closely than we do heard all they want to hear about Rutherford, and the allegations made their decision process easier by eliminating one of the candidates.

I still don’t understand why someone who called Jesse White his mentor, got his sister a job there (Google the Greg Hinz nepotism article) and worked for him in high-ranking positions would jump ship to work for the guy who ran against Jesse for SOS.

He had one chance to sneak into the last month with his money AND reputation intact so he could do a final push. Now that’s all laid waste, not saying allegations are true, just that the damage is done.

The biggest issue is that many folks are afraid to vote for Rutherford in the primary because if more comes out after the primary the Republicans may effectivly have no canidate. I am afraid this will likely end his run for Gov.

I think Rutherford is done. The fallout from the allegations-true or not- will be multiplied by Rutherford’s financial woes. The campaign does not have the financial resources to effectively rebut and overcome the scandal.